I recently had the opportunity to write an Autodesk University 2020 sponsored article on content management in AEC for CTC Software. Today's post talks about that and a little on my history with CTC Software.
I have been connected with the folks at CTC Software for about 20 years now. Given our close geographic location (until recently) I attended many presentations they put on in the early days, worked with them as our Autodesk reseller when they used to do that, and even partnered with them to create, market, sell, and support the Electrical Productivity Pack for Revit.
Over the years they have hosted, and created, some great events. They had Phil Read present, when he was still with Autodesk... this is where I first learned about the Revit phases/chipboard model rendering hack! They also hosted a presentation on sustainable design using Revit at the Guthrie, in Minneapolis, back when the concept was still pretty new - about 18 years ago. And then there is Midwest University, or Minnesota University as it was originally called, which had nearly 800 attendees in 2019 (now managed by ATG).
Along these lines, here is how I start the article:
"The design world has changed considerably in the last 20 years, from the first time I attended a presentation by CTC Software’s Shawn Zirbes on AutoCAD Architecture (previously ADT). Back then, they were leading the charge on Autodesk’s most advanced product in the AEC industry. Fast-forward to today and they are doing that and so much more to lead the industry with innovative tools and solutions within the Autodesk Revit and AutoCAD Civil 3D ecosystems."
I have been using Hive, CTC's content management tool for a few years now. In addition to some of their Revit productivity tools, we are just rolling Hive out this week at Lake|Flato.
Hive is not the only option in this space. But it is a solid option that is completely priced.
As the article points out, a few highlights of this product are:
- Highly searchable Revit content, with the ability to:
- See content details
- Rate and comment on content
- Request new content
- Cloud hosted content
- Option to use local content when available
- Warehouse files optimized, e.g. Wall type master file
- Hive does not have to open that file to extract one wall type
- Hive has already broken them out, which is not possible locally
- Project analytics, which tracks:
- Project open times
- Project save to central times
- Warnings
- And more...
Here is a link to the article: click here
Note: I was compensated to write the sponsored AU article, but not this blog post.
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